tune in tonight 10:00 p.m. to a special one hour about obamacare in new hampshire. we worked on this for months. it's worth checking out. set the dvr, watch live, whatever one. greta van cuss strsusteren is o record right now. have a great weekend. this is a fox news alert. just moments ago the pentagon announcing new rounds of u.s. air strikes in iraq. the u.s. military dropping laser guided bombs on isis targets near erbil, the city where dozens of americans are stationed. vice president biden calling the iraqi president and promising support. just a short time ago the iraqi government confirming hundreds of women from the ya i diddy minority have been taken capture. first, we go to grn reporter hermione gee live in erbil. tell me what's the latest.

can you hear me? hermione, we'll get back to you. we'll go to doug over at the pentagon with the very latest. doug, tell me the latest, what the pentagon is saying about the strikes. >> reporter: well, first strike, greta, came early this morning east coast time as two f-18s launched from the carrier in the gulf. dropped two 500 pound laser guided bombs on a mobile artillery piece. the howitzer was firing indiscriminately on the citizens in erbil. later this afternoon came more strikes, also from carrier-based f-18s and predator drones. the target of the second attack according to the aprosht the press a convoy and two mortar positions. the pentagon said it is hitting and it will hit, quote, targets

of opportunity, but critics are not sure if that is enough. now, senator john mccain in an interview today with the daily beast said today's air strishtion are, quote, pin tricks, meaningless and worse than nothing. indeed, the president may be boxed in at least a little bit by the prospect of a more aggressive attack. isis now holds and iraqi officials confirmed it's holding 100 or so yazidi women who could be potentially used as human shields. and if threatened by more aggressive attacks, isis could unleash a scorched earth policy. it has that dam now, and if it were to release that water behind the dam it could wreak havoc on everything below it. but the biggest threat may be isis' aspirations. it's well organized, equipped with u.s. weapons, including armored humvees, mraps, a few tanks, perhaps even a few helicopters even though we may not know for sure whether or not

it has pilots who can man them. it has money and it has perhaps most importantly, western citizens, more than 100 citizens and several hundred europeans who can come and go freely from country to country using their passports. given what we know for their penchant for planning and aspiring to attack western europe and american interests, that poses perhaps the greatest danger of all. greta, back to you. >> doug, thank you. apparently we have gotten a connection with hermione gee live in erbil. what is the latest going on? >> reporter: as we just heard, unfortunately, there's a lot more bad news coming out of the region which fell to the militants earlier this week. the iraqi ministry of human rights today confirms those rumors that the militants have captured hundreds of yazidi women under the age of 35 and are holding them in a school in mosul. the minister said they would be used for what he said demeaning purposes that he said goes

against basic values and suggested they would be sold as sex slaves for forced into marriages against their will. that's obviously of great concern. bad news again, as you mentioned, there are reports that the mosul dam has been taken by the militants, although they haven't been confirmed, but if it true, it could be a real disaster not only do they control the water supply to hundreds of thousands of people, they could use the dam as a kind of weapon of destruction if they chose to blow it up. again, so that's something that needs to see if it's, in fact, true. one piece of very good news is that -- relieved the u.s. is supporting the kurdish forces in their fight against the militants. one man today said if the u.s. supports kurdistan, everything will be okay. while it probably isn't that simple, the u.s. intervention has certainly improved moral here in erbil. >> hermione, thank you.

>> thank you. >> isis are killing innocents and now they're threatening the united states. if you have any doubt about them, check this out. a documentary by vice news. in the video an isis leader threatening the united states. [ speaking foreign language ] >> and former u.n. ambassador john bone joins us. good evening, sir. and isis is so awful that al qaeda has thrown out isis because they're too extreme and too violent. >> well, i think this is a natural evolution of the terrorist threat, and belies the argument we've heard the last

three or four years that the international threat of terrorism is declining. manifestly it's not. it's growing in ways that we just haven't been paying attention to up to and including the president's speech last night. >> well, the president said on september 6, 2012, at the dnc about how the al qaeda is on the path to defeat. now, of course, this is isis, and then just in january he was referring to al qaeda offshoots as jv. >> look, he's still locked into it. last night he said there's no american military solution here, and he was at pains to limit what the u.s. involvement in this current conflict is going to be. the whole point of the threat of isis now is that they will be able to establish their own separate state within which they can continue to metastasize as a terrorist threat to western europe and the united states. it's not enough to say the iraqi government has got to take care of things because it's not just the threat to the iraqi government. it's a threat to the kurds, to the sunnis, ultimately it's a threat to us.

>> is this different from syria in the sense of how the united states responds? obviously the humanitarian crisis in both spots. but we were in iraq and we weren't in syria. is it sort of like what colin powell said, we broke it? >> i have always believed that syria was a strategic side show. the issue in syria was never the fight there. it was always iran and the support of iran for the assad government. iraq, if it breaks apart, gives isis the possibility of setting up a separate terror state. it threatens natural allies of the united states and the kurds, and that's why we need to intervene. you can't say that we're going to go back and forget we withdrew three years ago. that was the biggest mistake right there. you've got to -- >> but if we would intervened in iraq like senator john mccain wanted to, we might have -- i mean in syria, we might not have isis now in iraq. >> it's possible or isis might have captured the weapons from the free syrian army before they

captured them from the iraqi army. they're very different circumstances in my view. >> president obama -- do you think that now he sort of has a greater sense that it's not the jv? because it's really a shocking statement. when he made that statement about the jv in january, fallujah had fall ton isis at that point and we had two years of isis in syria. it wasn't some big surprise. even in january should have been aware what isis was doing and they called them jv or groups like theirs. >> i think he has ideological blinders on. he simply cannot admit that the threat of international terrorism is growing, whether it's corner al qaeda or this piece of al qaeda. he just can't admit it because it would be a concession that his entire conduct of the war on terror, in fact, his dismissal that there is a war on terror was fundamentally wrong. >> why do the limited strikes now if that's his ideology if he won't admit it. >> because it's so limited. what he said last night was that the use of force would be to

protect the american personnel in erbil and to protect the distribution of humanitarian supplies. not aid the kurds, defeat isis. not enable the sunni tribal militias to defeat isis but for those two limited objectives, if he follows what he said, the american military involvement cannot be consequential. >> we're going to talk about it in a minute, the issue of the mosul dam, which may be a far bigger problem that's associated with isis.k you, sir. >> thank you. >> the u.s. is dropping some bombs and humanitarian aid in iraq but is that enough to stop them. what weapons do they have? first of all, this operation is not named. is there any -- should we -- does that mean anything? this is not an operation let's go back in or operation let's save anybody. why isn't it named? >> remember the last time we went into kurdistan, we had operation provide comfort that did on a much larger and grander scale what the president is trying to do here. no, this is -- >> does that mean anything at

all? >> it means a lot to a military man. it means it's not an operation. it's just a pinprick. it's just a side show. it's just a deflection from the normal course of things. you give something an operation, you provide a commander in the field, you connect with your allies, in this case the kurds, and you get on with it. we haven't done that. >> okay. how big is isis? how strong are they? what kind of weapons do they have? >> they're amazing. what's happened is that -- >> and you say amazing in a very bad way. >> in a very bad way. >> i don't want e-mails. >> no, no. they have gone from disparate groups of isolated terrorists, sort of individuals fighting on their own, into a cohesive, coordinated, well led, well quip equ equipped, well funded, and well trained organization. in other words, what we saw in 2003 is completely different than what we see now. we have old baath generals leading. you have 18 and 19-year-old kids

who instead of blowing themselves up in front of u.s. compounds are actually maneuvering, driving our vehicles, they're fixing our vehicles. no, this is a completely different situation than it was say ten years ago. >> and they have a ton of money. >> a lot of money. >> i heard some place they said they have $2 billion. >> in addition to that, don't forget, they've become organized and they've become more military, but at the same time they kept their ideological craziness. they're wanton desire to kill the infidels. >> they're killing christians and a threat we're going to kill you if you don't get out of there. they're beheading children, i understand. you have to be really terrible if al qaeda thinks you're awful. >> this makes genghis khan look like small potatoes. these people are intent not only on destroying the kurds, pushing the iraqis back, killing minorities in iraq, but they have a game plan. they have a game plan to come

after us. >> does the iraqi military or the kurdish military that they have, do they have any ability -- i mean, do they have the wherewithal to fight back? >> this is what's so frustrating. the kurds do. you've been there. you saw that e-mail i shared with you this morning from general jay garner. they haven't gotten a thing from the iraqi government, not a bullet, and those are the people who have stood up with us over the last ten years and been our true tested allies. they have money, they have a good army, they have a will to fight, and they're fighting an enemy equipped with our weapons with ak-47s. let's help the kurds. >> i was there in january -- in december. it was unbelievable. it was the most safest -- not safest but it was like you could tell it was thriving. >> and they love us. they're the most pro-american, best educated, best funded group in the middle east, and they're getting the least amount of military help. >> you say the iraqi government is not giving them anything. should the u.s. government -- >> absolutely. take the anti-tank missiles in germany and at ft. stewart,

georgia, put them on a c-17, fly them to erbil so they can fight isis. >> and if we don't? >> if we don't, then i believe all of kurdistan is at risk. i don't believe that as good as they are they can withstand much longer against an enemy that's armed with up armored humvees and our tanks. >> general scale, thank you, sir. >> thank you. and isis has another big weapon. they now control iraq's largest dam. guns, are a tilly, armored vehicles, all dangerous, but not nearly as dangerous as the biggest weapon. mosul dam, more than a mile wide, over 400 feet tall and holding a reservoir of water.

some have described it falling into the wrong hands, could be like a weapons of mass destruction. if the dam fails, huge floods will drown mosul, a major city, putting it 65 feet under water. flooding will wipe out everything along the river tigris. cutting electricity, wiping out farmland. even baghdad possibly under water. a threat so big, so serious that in 2006 the u.s. military warned dam failure would be catastrophic. so will isis blow the dam? >> in control of religious fanatics, obviously they would want to keep their own water supply and lelectricity going, but they were on the verge of being defeated, they might blow the dam. >> even if they don't, the dam may fail anyway. the army corps of engineers warning in a 2007 report that the foundation is built into fragile shifting soluble soil, think of it as sand. 24 pumps continuously pushing grout into the base of dam.

constant maintenance that the dam will need or it will collapse. so the question isn't just will isis blow up the dam. it's will isis be able to keep the mosul dam running. >> they might not have the capacity to keep it functioning and operating and the smallest thing, the whole thing could collapse, literally put a large chunk of iraq underneath water. the former inspector general for iraq reconstruction. he joins us. nice to see you. >> nice to be with you. >> the dam built in the 1980s. there are three options. one is everything works fine and there's no problem. the other is if isis blows it up or if it isn't maintained and then lets water out. how catastrophic if that dam doesn't hold? >> it would be a devastating disaster, no doubt about it. we went out and looked at it in 2007, issued an inspection report that raised red flags about the lack of structural integrity in this dam.

this is the largest dam in iraq, the fourth largest in the middle east, and it's built on shifting sands, quite literally. and the project we looked at was supposed to repair that matter. it couldn't do it, and we -- and general petraeus and ryan crocker issued a letter raising grave concerns about its potential collapse. >> and nothing was done? >> the iraqis said they began a repair program, but whether they sustained it is a huge question. and my experience is their capacity to sustain significant projects like this is very low. >> all right. so isis has now taken control. some people think isis would never destroy a dam because that would destroy them as well because they are there and would get the flood. but my attention is sort of whether or not isis in taking control of the dam has the wherewithal to maintain the dam based on the fact that it is on the shifting sands. i read these horror stories about having to grout it all the time because of all the problems. >> they don't have the wherewithal and they're certainly not paying attention to that issue right now as they

attack kurdistan. but they have shown a willingness to use weapons, use infrastructure as a weapon. when i was in baghdad in april, they used the fallujah dam on the euphrates to flood all the way to abu ghraib. right to the edge of baghdad, and it shocked the senior officials with whom i talked in baghdad, and that's a sign of the depths to which they will go to inflict horrors in iraq. >> if they don't maintain it and it breaks or if they blow it up and use it like they have used it as you suggest, it becomes a weapon of mass destruction. how massive, how much destruction? >> it would devastate the city of mosul. >> which means put -- everyone is flooded like making katrina look like nothing? >> it could -- thousands would be killed. the city would be disabled functionally. it would sweep away significant segments of it. it's something they won't do because they hold mosul now,

about but should the dam -- >> you say they wouldn't do it deliberately but because it's a dam in peril anyway. >> right. should it collapse, it would create a human tragedy of enormous proportion. >> if no one pays any attention, if there's no maintenance on it, is there a life span? are we talking about a week, a month, ten years before there's a risk that that dam would break on its own? >> impossible to say at this juncture. it is continuing to function and has and provides an enormous amount of hydroelectricity to mosul, but if its condition is not maintained, then it becomes increasingly perilous. >> give me the worst case scenar scenario. what would not surprise you in terms of having it break on its own like that's pumps were unsuccessful in dealing with the problem it has, the 24 continuous pumps at the bottom. >> if they don't grout it at all over the next year, its condition becomes extremely weak. the integrity will be

threatened, and its collapse is possible. >> so at least we have a year maybe? >> maybe. >> unless they use it strategically as a weapon. >> that's right. >> all right. stuart, thank you very much, sir. >> thank you. six months ago president obama calling groups like isis jv. did he think they were not a threat? and now u.s. launching military strikes against isis. so is it too little too late and is this what we should do? lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are here next. also we have an update about the sergeant who languishes in the mexican prison. he has a message for president obama. find out what it is coming up. if you take multiple medications, a dry mouth can be a common side effect. that's why there's biotene. it comes in oral rinse, spray or gel, so there's moisturizing relief for everyone. biotene, for people who suffer from dry mouth.

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now, he tells the new yorker magazine, if a jv team puts on lakers uniforms, it doesn't make them kobe bryant. what did the president say that? did he not take isis eseriously? joining us republican representative ross late-lehtin. did the president not take this seriously that he made that jv remark? >> well, we want to minimize the problems over there. if he were to say that this is a varsity terrorist threat, then that means that we have to step up to the challenge, and, you know, this is all a political narrative. we have to say everything is fine, there's nothing going on here in ben za gibenghazi and n again with isil in iraq. and what is happening now, he's repeating the same mistake, greta, because he's saying these

are limited pinprick air strikes and he's minimizing it, and so the enemy, what they're hearing is, oh, the united states is hardly going to touch us. let's say we're going to help the kurds, we're going to give them the arms that they need. no one is saying boots on the ground, but we have natural allies who can help us beat these terrorists. >> congresswoman, you are a vet, so you have seen a lot of this. you have been on the ground on these situations. are we doing -- is that what we should be doing right now? >> that's a great question, greta. i think it's important for us to ask us what are we doing and what should we be doing? we should not be in the business of nation building whether in iraq or afghanistan or in any other place. we should not be getting involved in other countries' sectarian civil wars, and what is disheartening to me, i joined the military after 9/11 like so many other people because we saw

the islamic extremists declaring war against our country and we joined to go and fight against these people who want to kill our fellow american citizens. we hear from the administration yesterday their declaration saying the president's air strike was not an authorization of a broad-based counterterrorism campaign against isis. isis is al qaeda. these are the same islamic extremists whose goal is to kill americans and continue to provide that threat. so as we look at what's happening there in iraq right now, we should regain our focus on what our mission should be as the united states, and that is to take out these islamic extremists wherever they are and right now we have the ability to do so uniquely there with the kurds who are fighting against them on the ground. >> congresswoman gabbard, would you put our boots on the ground in iraq. isis wants to get us as well.

would you put boots -- american boots on the ground there? >> i don't think that's the right question we should be asking. we should be asking a very strategic tactical military question. as we look at what's happening on the ground there with the kurds fighting, we have the ability to support the kurds who have the courage and the will to fight on the ground against isis, and we can support them by providing heavy weaponry and by providing air strike cover. that same situation may not work in other places where isis is acting or where other places where we have other islamic extremists by a different name who are causing problems. >> congresswoman ros-lehtineros do you agree we should be arming the kurds? >> first of all, tulsi is a patriot and she's doing a wonderful job in our foreign affairs committee. like tulsi my stepson and

daughter-in-law also served in iraq, and we know, all military families know that the threat of these terrorist groups and no one is saying boots on the ground, but we have such natural allies in the kurds. they're killing women. they're kidnapping children, beheading christians. they say they're going to kill us. they already control parts of syria. they control great parts of iraq. do you think they're going to stop there? they're going to destabilize our ally jordan, also get into lebanon, and what they seek is total domination. islamic caliphate. it's not time for boots on the ground but it's time to help our natural allies, the kurds, defend their homeland, and they've been begging for tmonth. it's time that president obama listen to those voices. >> congresswoman gabbard, let me switch gears for a second with you and turn to another topic, your state of hawaii is getting pummeled by two storms, and i'm curious how you're doing. you have a tropical storm and you've got a hurricane coming.

>> yeah, thanks, greta. you know, it's been a very tense last 48 hours and we've got another tense 72 hours ahead of us as the second hurricane comes our way. we've had hurricane iselle which really hit hawaii island the hardest overnight last night taking out power for tens of thousands of people. many people going to evacuation shelters. thankfully because of our great civil defense teams, red cross, our emergency responders and people really being proactive and being ready, we had no reported injuries, no reported deaths, and people are remaining vigilant as hurricane julio heads our direction. >> congresswoman, thank you to both of you. as a tip to congressman gabbard, you might want to call congress mon ro woman ros-lehtinen after the show. she has lots of hurricane experience. >> thank you, greta. >> thanks, greta. aloha. we're following two more developing stories. more trouble breaking in israel.

we'll take you there live next plus another hurricane heading for the united states. the one that congresswoman gabbard was telling you about is bearing down right now. a live report is coming up. likn negatively impact good bacteria? even if you're healthy and active. phillips digestive health support is a duo-probiotic that helps supplement good bacteria found in two parts of your digestive tract. i'm doubly impressed! phillips' digestive health. a daily probiotic.

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this is a fox news alert. this week's death of former reagan press secretary james brady has just been ruled a homicide. that is in relation to the 1981 assassination attempt on president reagan. brady survived a gunshot wound

to the head when john hinckley, jr. fired multiple shots out the washington hilton hotel but he never regained his health and just this monday he died. late today a medical examiner ruling his death a homicide. the cause of death, a gunshot wound. now to the middle east and another cease-fire shattered. hamas firing rockets into israel 2 1/2 hours before the three-day truce expired. and israel responded. what happened to the peace talks in cairo. rick leventhal is live in gaza city with the latest. >> reporter: the palestinians blame israel for not budging on key points, including opening air and sea ports and allowing freer flow of goods across the border but israel says it needs to prevent hamas from rearming itself. it did offer to extend the cease-fire and continue negotiations, but hamas had other plans. this was just minutes after the

cease-fire expired at 8:00 a.m. this morning. we saw several rockets launched from near our position towards israel. the israelis say there were mortars and rockets also fired before dawn when the truce was still in effect. a total of close to 60 rockets in all, but damages and injuries were minor in israel. the results more severe here in gaza with the id f firing from air and sea hitting numerous targets in north gaza, also central gaza and in the south as well. the palestinians report six dead today, including a 10-year-old boy and 12-year-old cousins and at least 30 wounded, but israel blames hamas for this saying if it had kept its fingers off the trigger, none of this would have happened. tonight israel is asking the u.n. to finally condemn hamas and call for the demilitarization of gaza. that hasn't happened tonight either. what we are hearing tonight are more drones and fighter jets overhead. back to you. >> rick, thank you. and hawaii, get ready. hawaii just got hit by a

tropical storm, but that's just the beginning. now hurricane julio is headed for hawaii. fox news correspondent will karr is riding out the storms in hawaii. he joins us live. will? >> reporter: good evening. communities here are slowly making progress with the cleanup. earlier today there was a huge tree behind me blocking the roadway. members of this community got their chain saws, sawed through it in an hour and moved on to another site. just evidence of some of the damage we've seen since the storm hit. there were whipping winds, sideways rain. it forced thousands of people to evacuate. businesses had to board up their windows. now many people are returning to find flooding. there are still power outages for 20,000 people in the area and they're also anxious. they tell us they're anxious because hurricane julio is bearing down on this area. it could impact hawaii sunday or monday and the reason for the anxiety is because this is not an area that gets many tropical storms or hurricanes. in fact, hawaii has only had two

hurricanes make landfall since 1949 when it became a state. but the residents tell me that if it does happen on sunday or monday, they're going to pull out again what they call their aloha pride, that's where members of the community get each other's backs. here today, greta, we haven't seen many members of the state or local officials come out to help with these cleanup projects. we've seen a lot of residents and like i said, they came out, got this tree, they went to another site. they told us they probably went to a dozen sites to try to pick up their community one piece at a time. greta? >> will, thank you. and good luck as the storm is going to hit. for first time, we're hearing directly from the american doctor suffering from ebola. speaking out from his isolation unit plus the cdc director goes on the record. that's all next. and from his mexican prison sell sergeant andrew tam more res si sending president obama a message, coming up.

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developing now, the world health organization declaring the ebola outbreak an international public health emergency. also today nigeria's president declaring a national state of emergency due to ebola and here in the united states two american aide workers suffering from ebola are still in isolation at emory hospital. one of only four u.s. hospitals with a special isolation unit. here is a closer look inside. there are two rooms for patients and two patient support rooms. each patient's room has a glass window to allow communication with family members. and in between the patients' rooms, there is a staff dressing room and a room for doctors and nurses. joining us from atlanta, cdc director dr. tom frieden. good evening, sir. >> good to be with you. >> many people are worried this is coming to the united states but it will sure be a lot easier to contain it from coming to the united states if we can stop it in africa. what can we do to stop it in africa? >> that's exactly right.

the best way to protect americans is to stop this at the source in africa, and we do that with tried and true public health measures. find the patients, respond to the patients by finding their contacts. track the contacts for 21 days, make sure they're isolated if they're sick, improve infection control in hospitals and burial practices for patients who die from ebola and when we do that, we can stop the outbreak. >> you know, it seems -- i traveled to africa and these are really nations without borders, and there are a lot of people who are even fearful of doctors and health care providers. i mean, this is very different of a health crisis for doctors like you than it is in africa, isn't it? >> well, cdc has about 2,000 staff working in 50 countries protecting americans and helping those countries get better at finding, stopping, and preventing health threats. so we're used to working in challenging environments, but this is particularly

challenging. the cross border movements, the unprecedented nature of ebola in in part of the world as well as in urban areas makes it very challenging. we're sending teams of laboratory experts, disease detectives, people who can manage data and communications experts to help get the message out. >> all right. what else -- what do you need? how can we make your job even easier? what can americans do to help you? >> well, there are a lot of great organizations working on the response like doctors without borders. there's a lot more needed in the region, and at a minimum americans should understand that we are part of the world and by helping other countries do a better job finding, stopping, and preventing health threats, not only are we helping them, but we're helping ourselves. >> all right. i don't understand how you get doctors or health care workers to work at cdc, to work on something like ebola. i have been to a lot of these clinics. i have been to cholera clinics in haiti, refugee camps.

how do you convince people who work for you to do this? >> cdc has wonderful staff, dedicated professionals who are the world's experts in the field who live for the work that they do helping others to live longer, 45e89yer lives. we also make sure to take safety first as a core principle, to make sure that when we do send people out, we don't put them in harm's way whether that's from safety or security issues, and, in fact, to take care of a patient with ebola, you don't need a special facility. you just need to be especially careful with infection control. >> all right. that 21-day incubation period, it frightens people. and so someone comes from west africa for 21 days, doesn't have any symptoms. does that mean the person is not contagious during that 21 days or do have to have the symptoms to be a risk to someone? >> you only are contagious when you have symptoms, and the symptoms will generally start about 8 to 10 days after exposure if you get infected, but the maximum period is 21

days. after that time, it's all clear. >> well, i just hope, doctor, i know americans are absolutely terrified about this. every time we talk about cutting money in washington and every time the cdc is on the cutting block, i hope they remember times like right now when we really need you. >> absolutely. we work 24/7 to protect americans from threats whether they're from this country or overseas, and we feel privileged to do it. >> and the american people are grateful. thank you, doctor. >> thank you. and today for the first time we are hearing directly from the american doctor recovering from ebola. in a written statement kent brantley think his doctors and nurses and everyone who has prayed for him. also writing about treating ebola victims in africa saying, quote, i held the hands of countless individuals as this terrible disease took their lives away interest them. i witnessed the horror firsthand and i can still remember every face and name. straight u.s. marine jailed in mexico has a message

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that's why i always choose the fastest intern.r slow. the fastest printer. the fastest lunch. turkey club. the fastest pencil sharpener. the fastest elevator. the fastest speed dial. the fastest office plant.

so why wouldn't i choose the fastest wifi? i would. switch to comcast business internet and get the fastest wifi included. comcast business. built for business. she's not a criminal. he made a mistake and made a wrong turn. >> his options were zero. he couldn't cross over the cement barriers. >> i'm afraid to let him know i might have to possibly buy him a winter coat to prepare him for christmas. >> we're finally heading somewhere with his defense. >> please at least let me know, president obama, that you've had a word with president nieto. >> and u.s. marine sergeant andrew tahmooressi just spoke with his friend, andrew bartholomew. they both served in afghanistan together and sergeant bartholomew joins us. >> good evening, greta. thanks for having me back. >> i know you spoke with

sergeant tahmooressi and he had a message for president obama. what did he say for president obama? >> i had a good conversation with him last night, and he's very aware that his issue has become incredibly contentious in america. that's unfortunate, he agrees. what he really want me to tell south america that he understands that it might not be politically beneficial for fwoim come out stro-- for president o to come out strongly on this side. he understands it might not be correct to demand mexico unconditionally release him. he understands this. what he wants to hear obama, the government saying they're doing, is that they're pressuring mexico to expedite his release. if at all possible. the biggest issue is he is suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. and this doesn't mean he's a monster or anything. this -- this just means he's an american who fought for america and needs american help. >> you know, the next court appearance will be in four month.

if he's convicted, a whole other issue, if could be 14 years. but so how he doing in prison? i mean, when i've spoken to him, he says he's doing okay. what does he tell you? >> well, you're never going to get him to agree that he's -- he's suffering. that's just simply -- simply not the kind of person he is. he's strong. you can detect there's a slight amount of depression in his voice. but he's happening it well and is being strong about it. highways spending time, you know, he has book, he's reading a lot. he's getting out of his cell four hours a day. the physical abuse has ended. the physical abuse that was present during the -- the earlier days of his incarceration is done. there are too many eyes on it. thank god that's over. but yeah, i think highways doing well. i think he's doing really well. >> what do you think about all this? >> i have to agree with a lot of what he wanted may me to say

tonight. i don't think making a contentious issue does anything for him. if anything, it gives writers traction, other authors traction. and there are articles out there, the "los angeles times" has an author who writes extensively against andrew and advocates that possibly he is completely at fault, and possibly he's better served being in prison in mexico. and it's simply not the case. she doesn't know him. i would even say if andrew was -- if andrew was her son, she would be fighting just as hard as jill to get him back. >> sergeant, thank you very much for joining us. and of course, you know, thank you also for serving. i know that you did three tours in afghanistan. the second one being, of course, with andrew, who's in mexico. >> i -- one in iraq, two in afghanistan. >> all right. okay. there you go. anyway, thank you for that. >> thank you. >> thank you very much for joining us, and hopefully this will get expedited because it's been dragging out a long time. thank you, sir. >> hopefully, have a gate. >> thank you. and coming up, i want to

talk to you off the record. i owe some people an apology. and they're going to get it. that's next. i owe some people an apology.

let's go off the record for a minute. i did something stupid, even insensitive. the last full week of july was named national moth week. in response i blogged do we really need this, a national math week? i went on to blog that i'm in favor of science and learning, but a national math week? this morning i was taken to task in an article by the "philadelphia enquirer" for that posting. after some thought, i agree. i shouldn't have blogged it. just so we're clear, in the blog i was not complaining about moths or criticizing the important of studying them. i was justi being snarky, which isn't good, about how we have bubble wrap appreciation day, national catfish month, international flirting week. you get the picture.

wee we have so many special occasions, some are unusual on. a serious note, when i'm talking about this, if people have fun with national whatever days, weeks or months, for good causes or if it puts a spotlight on something or educates, why not, right? i shouldn't be a jerk and post something snarky. to prove it. i plan to go line and read about moths. i've done a little today and learned scientists estimate there are 150,000, more than 500,000 moth species. can you believe it? so i've had a lesson and am learning about moths. that's my "off the record" comment tonight. thanks for being with us. see you monday night right here, 7:00 p.m. eastern. a reminder, if you can't be home to watch us live, dvr the show, set it up now. do the recording stuff and answer this question -- do you think president obama will answer sergeant tahmooressi's plea for help, or will he continue to ignore our marine held in mexico? vote in our greta wire poll. good night from washington, d.c. and i'll be blogging all weekend

on greta wire. i hope you will join us, as well. see you monday night, 7:00 p.m. eastern. a special tonight. watch. this is a fox news alert. hello, this is a special edition of the "five." the u.s. unleashed two sets of air strikes in northern iraq today as isis jihadists threatened genocide against christians in the country. tens of thousands of non-muslims have fled for their lives in fear to a mountainous area and are trapped without food or water. isis terrorists today took hundreds of women captive from the minority group. the u.s. military is trying to help resolve the humanitarian crisis, but questions remain about president obama's strategy going forward and whether air strikes alone can stop isis. we have team fox coverage. doug mckelway is at the pentagon. ed henry is at the white house.